James Cook

Inscriptionback to top

Incised beneath left shoulder: Le Vieux ft 1790.
The original socle inscribed: JACQUES COOK/NÉ DANS LE COMTÉ/D’YORK EN 1728/MORT DANS L’ISLE/D’OWHYHÉE EN 1779.

This portraitback to top

An idealised classical bust, unlike any authentic image of Cook, apparently derived from that carved by Auguste Pajou for the marquis de Laborde in 1788.

Provenanceback to top

Phillips and Neale, a house sale, Portland Place, c.1893;¹ F. C. Bentinck, from whom purchased 1895.

¹ Letters from F. C. Bentinck to Lionel Cust, 3 May 1895: ‘I saw this bust at a Sale of effects in a house in Portland Place about two years ago’, and to Mrs A. Esdaile, 13 September 1928: ‘I happened to see this bust at Phillips & Neale’s Auction Rooms included in one of their weekly sales of furniture’ (copies in NPG archive). It was not the Charles Magniac sale, Phillips & Neale, 8-9 June 1893 (as David Scrase has kindly informed me).

Exhibitionsback to top

National Maritime Museum, 1971-2000; Mutiny on the Bounty, National Maritime Museum, 1989 (6).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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